Good news upon my return from a summer break: e!Sankey 2.0 has been released by German software maker ifu Hamburg on July 15. I had participated in their beta testing in June, so I was well aware of what they would present…

The new version comes in two different flavours: a standard version and a “pro” version, which differs from the standard version by offering a ‘LiveLink’ for Excel files and material stocks visualization.

A full list of new features has been published in their BBS. Some are nice to have, such as the 40+ fill patterns or background colour for the diagram. Others are off real added value (at least in my eyes), such as rotating of labels, or padding at processes.

The implementation of the interface to Microsoft Excel (so-called LiveLink) is a big push and definitely justifies the price difference of 60 Euro (110 US$) for the e!Sankey 2.0 pro version. You can copy & paste values from Excel into the quantity field for a flow, establishing a dynamic reference to the cell in the background (cells should be named, so that their postion can be changed without losing the reference to the e!Sankey diagram). If the value in the Excel file is changed, the flow quantity is automatically updated, and the diagram adapted accordingly. Read more about the Excel LiveLink.